Behind the Numbers: What World Nomads’ The Footprints Network Has Meant to One of its Partners, the Australian Himalayan Foundation

The micro-donation program has helped train teachers and rebuild classrooms in Nepal

Press Release – The micro-donation platform The Footprints Network recently crossed a major threshold, topping the $3 million mark in funds raised. Founded by the World Nomads team in 2004 in response to the Southeast Asian tsunami, the idea was to create a way for the company’s e-commerce customers to give back to the places they travel via small micro-donations at the point of purchase.

In 2016 alone, 138,020 charitable World Nomads customers made a micro-donation, resulting in over $350,000 raised to help fund 22 community development projects in 14 countries around the world (compared to 2015, the number of donors increased by 8% and the total amount raised increased by 32%). Since the program’s inception in 2004, nearly 1.2 million people have given more than $3 million to help support 156 global community development projects.

To put those numbers in some context, here’s what The Footprints Network has meant to just one of those 150-plus partners, the Australian Himalayan Foundation (AHF).

The Australian Himalayan Foundation was set up in 2003 to improve the quality of life for people in the remote communities of the Himalaya. The AHF strives to ensure the long-term viability of sustainable health, education and conservation programs in the poorest, most under-resourced areas of the Himalaya across Nepal, Bhutan and Northern India. These programs help to reduce poverty and address human rights like gender quality, children’s rights, and the rights of marginalized groups in rural regions throughout the Himalaya.

“The support we have received from The Footprints Network since 2006 has been enormous,” says AHF communications and fundraising manager Siobhan Reynolds. “World Nomads customers have raised more than $400,000 to fund both our Teacher Training and Quality Education program and our Rebuild Nepal efforts, which were set up last year following the devastating earthquakes in Nepal in 2015.”

The TTQE project is focused on improving the quality of teaching that is offered in public schools across the lower Solukhumbu region of Nepal, and with funding from The Footprints Network it has expanded its training programs across a number of areas in the region. The result has been an increase in primary school enrolment rates, a reduction in dropout rates of children from low socioeconomic backgrounds, improved overall attendance rates, and increased enrollment rates of the most vulnerable students.

“The funds raised for our Rebuild Nepal efforts currently total more than $70,000,” says Reynolds. “To rebuild a classroom costs $15,000, so this money has already funded four-and-a-half classrooms, which is an amazing result.”

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